swedish style

October 4, 2009

ARTIST OF THE MONTH: MARCUS PALMQVIST

Sofia Hedstrom is a Swedish freelance journalist who now lives in New York. Hedstrom is the fashion editor for Swedish national newspaper Svenska Dagbladet and hosts the TV show Hype on Swedish National Television. This influential fashionista has worked for Nylon, Reuters, and Elle and has been featured in magazine such as American Elle, American Glamour, and Japanese Vogue. World renowned street style photographer ‘The Sartoralist’ has announced her as one of his style favorites.
Our second contribution to this discussion is Ulrika Ballstrom, the buyer at Tjallamalla. Tjallamalla is a fabulous Stockholm boutique with an array of collections from the ateliers of small to large Swedish labels. The store has been the number one spot for innovative, independent fashion for years, displaying Swedish style at its best.

The Swedish style is very put together. No style element has been created out of coincidence, everything is clearly figured out whether it comes to shoe laces or sporting a beard. This awareness of style and trends clearly characterize the Swedish style. The Swedes loves being up to date with trends and are familiar with the fashion industry and dress accordingly. An essential element of the Swedish style is the clean and neat look. A Swede will wear a grungy outfit with a clean flannel shirts and polished boots. Without doubt, the Swedes are the best people in the world to embraces trends and styles, but the worst people to find their own.
Lately the Swedish fashion scene has been recognized internationally and one of the main reasons this has happen is because of the success of the Swedish music industry. It opened up a huge interest for the creative industry of Sweden. Swedes has the knowledge needed to create the perfect garments and designs like a hit machine of fashion.

http://sofiaheadstrong.com/

With the success of Swedish denim brand Cheap Monday, Sweden has turned to a denim nation, the combination jeans and t-shirts are essential elements of the Swedish style. The Swedes are very aware of trends and quick to adopt the current street fashion. The big labels and department stores are quick to alter the current trends, which makes trends and stylish fashion very accessible.
As a buyer, Ulrika clearly notices the Swedish minimalism since she is always informed that all items are available in black. However, she spotted a new trend among the smaller labels and independent designers in Sweden. They are more innovative in their design, featuring more colors and creative expressions.
Lately the Swedish fashion has been declared as a fashion statement of its own, bringing the Swedish style to fashion boutiques all over the world. Sweden has a vast array of talented designers ready to show their stylish skills to international markets.

http://www.tjallamalla.com/

Swedish sisters Sofie, Pernilla and Jennifer Elvestedt are the magic behind the fantastic fashion label Minimarket, an independent brand that launched in 2006. Their style entertain with binaries; proper vs. sensual, radiant colors vs. dark shades, feminine vs. masculine. Minimarket has rapidly grown into a popular fashion label world-wide. Today Minimarket is sold in 30 selected stores in Sweden , Europe, US, Australia and Asia.
During the Spring/Sumer 2010 fashion week that was recently held in Stockholm, the sisters presented a collection inspired by underwater adventures. Aquatic creatures, such as sting rays and tropical fish were a huge inspiration for the collection, colors bounced from apricot to mint to coral to turquoise to pink.
In 2009 Minimarket added a shoe collection to their label. The lovely sisters continue to expand their brand, this fall they are adding the sub-label Mini For Many. Mini for Many will be designed for a younger crowd with thinner wallets, making the irresistible style of Minimarket more accessible.

http://minimarket.se/

Lagom, is a word often claimed to have a meaning uniquely Swedish. Not too much nor too little, lagom is just right. It just is. It is also the name of a 4-collection-old street wear label created by threesome Nette Sandström, Martin Lydén and Daniel Adams-Ray. Hitting stores this fall is the collection Equilibrium, inspired by early American gang culture and Nordic melancholy. The Spring/Summer ’10 collection shown at Stockholm Fashion Week offers fashion in dreamy pastels and prize ribbons.
Adams-Ray is earlier known as one half of refreshing Swedish hip hop duo Snook, where he raps with an honest wit and magnificent sense of humor. Although, the fashion industry seems harder to amuse, Adams-Ray and his colleagues make sophisticated apparel for confident Swedes, leaving us with a new definition of Lagom – fun, fresh and easy.
Lagom is available at Cali Roots and Tjallamalla in Sweden and at The Brooklyn Circus in New York.

http://www.precislagom.com

Orving has been painting, drawing, acting and sewing since childhood. She decided to pursue tailoring professionally after she noticed how many compliments she was received on the clothes she made herself. After receiving The Swedish Art Foundation’s scholarship, her interest in visual art grew and she began to see the relationship between art and clothing. Orving is completely self taught and started selling her first collections at the age of 15. Shortly after that she was picked up by a Japanese agency.
“I never dreamed about becoming a fashion designer,” she says.
“In theory I’m probably more drawn to art and I constantly question my profession and the industry in whole. But at the same time it’s a motive in itself, to diversify the field of fashion and to never stagnate.”
This artistic and experimental side is highly visible in her design which experiments with volume and advanced forms of draping. The dominant color is black to emphasize the different materials and textures then create natural nuances in the garments. Orving’s focus lies in the silhouette, “people” are her main sources of inspiration.
Earlier this year Orving received the Max Factor Award, a scholarship that each year goes to a young and promising designer. In March 2009 Orving was featured in the pop up shop Edit by Top Shop, a project to present international fashion from up and coming designers from all over the world. A selection of Orving’s retail locations are Jus, plus46 and Tjallamalla in Sweden and Opening Ceremony and Creatures of Comfort in the US.

http://www.dianaorving.com/

The versatile brand Acne Studios is launching a new addition to their creative company this fall. The denim manufacturer is teaming up with German jeweler Mikael Zobel to create a collection of fine jewelry. Besides the popular denim collections, Acne has their own fashion publication, Acne Paper and a creative studio, Acne Studios.. The jewelry collection looks very promising, encourage the same buzz as the Lanvin collaboration last year.
The jewelry include a fine collection of rings, bracelets and necklaces made out of a variety of gold, diamonds and precious stones. The raw and clean feeling of Acne’s design remains in this sculptural collection, but adding a little more indulgence to their restraint style of Acne. The collection is a blurring of the lines between art and jewelry, in line with the two worlds of Mikael Zobel and ACNE.

http://www.acnestudios.com

Published by: The Swede Beat